


Closure is Something You Give Yourself

by mosylu



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, No Wells, extreme handwaving of demolition physics, no Flash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-06
Updated: 2018-03-06
Packaged: 2019-03-27 17:32:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,641
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13885701
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mosylu/pseuds/mosylu
Summary: It's been two years since the particle accelerator exploded and left Cisco and Caitlin forever changed and seeking answers. They decide they're not going to wait for the city to demolish Star Labs - they'll do it themselves.





	Closure is Something You Give Yourself

**Author's Note:**

> For the prompt "pass me the sledgehammer" on Tumblr

Cisco set the lantern down on the hard concrete of the basement floor and held out his hand. “Pass me the sledgehammer.”

“I didn’t bring a sledgehammer,” Caitlin said.

Cisco eyed her. “Uh, wasn’t that the whole point of this little exercise?” He twirled his finger in the air, indicating the building that soared far above them. “Star Labs took everything from us, and now we’re going to bring this bitch down.”

It had been two years since the particle accelerator had exploded the first night they turned it on, killing nineteen people. Sometimes their names still marched across Cisco’s eyes when he tried to sleep.

Ronnie Raymond, Caitlin’s fiance. Harrison Wells, who had dreamed up the project that had killed him. More of their fellow employees. People all over Central City, going about their daily lives until the finger of God or fate or death, whatever you wanted to call it, tapped them on the shoulder and called time.

No matter how many lives he and Caitlin saved, or how many villains they fought, sometimes he felt as if he could never wash the blood off his hands. Hopefully, their little jaunt tonight would go a long way toward mitigating that feeling.

Except Caitlin, super-prepared Caitlin, never-without-the-tools-she-needed Caitlin, had forgotten the sledgehammer. Or left it behind on purpose.

“Are you getting cold feet or something?” he said.

She cut him a glance. “I see what you did there.”

He grinned back at her. They’d been friends before the explosion, but after, in the grief and the turmoil and the dawning wonder of their newfound powers, they’d become more. Maybe it was the only good thing to come out of this. Sometimes he felt guilty thinking that.

Other times, like when he woke in the night and lay listening to her quiet breathing in the bed next to him, he didn’t.

“Come on,” he said. “We planned this out like a military strike. We stole the blueprints and the damage reports to figure out how to bring it down. We hacked into the city records to find out when the official demo was scheduled so we could do it the night before. We redirected the city security guards so nobody would get hurt. Hell, Iris already has the article written!”

Iris West had lost someone in the explosion too - her best friend, she’d said, but the look in her eyes said he could have been more, if not for the lightning that had struck him and stopped his heart instantly. She’d been writing about Killer Frost and Vibe for six months before they’d revealed themselves to her and asked for help on a case. In the months since, she’d become their closest civilian ally, and very often the voice of reason.

It had taken weeks to talk her into agreeing to help them do this. She thought it was dangerous and what was the point, anyway, when the city was going to demolish the building?

“Symbolism,” Caitlin had said, and, “Closure.”

Cisco wondered if she’d changed her mind.

But she said now, “I know all that. I’m just saying, we don’t need sledgehammers.” She lifted her hands, the mist already swirling around them. “We’ve got us.”

He frowned at her. “Meaning?”

She wiggled her fingers. “Meaning, I deep-freeze all these load-bearing pillars, and once the ice has weakened them - ”

“I hit them with a boom,” he breathed. “Nice.”

“Symbolic,” she said. “This place gave us these powers, and we’re going to use them to destroy it.”

He laughed. “I love you so much.” The moment the words escaped, he wanted to bite his tongue. “I - uh. That slipped out.”

She put her hands on his arms. Even through his thick jacket, they felt chilly, but he was used to it. “I love you, too,” she said.

His heart leaped up to soar somewhere over his head, but he made himself say, “Hey, I’ve told you, you don’t have to say it back just because I’m saying it, okay? I’m not trying to get anything out of you, I’m just - ”

“I know,” she said. “I’m saying it because I do. I love you.”

He searched her face. Even in the dim light of the lantern, he could have traced every line and curve of it. “Yeah?”

“Yeah,” she said. “I should have said it a long time ago. I’m sorry I made you wait.”

He pulled her close for a kiss. “This was the right time,” he said against her mouth. “I love you.”

“I love you,” she told him, the words coming out more confidently, more bravely this time. She kissed him, her hands sliding up his arms to cup his face. They were still cool, but not cold; she’d throttled back enough to touch his bare skin.

It made his heart go gooshy, like chocolate pudding. She hadn’t touched him for months after the onset of her powers. He’d thought she hated him, was disgusted at the thought of touching the man who’d let Ronnie die, or maybe fearful of his then-unpredictable vibes. It had turned out to be her fear of freezer-burning him with her own uncontrolled powers.

Not uncontrolled anymore.

He kissed her harder, this extraordinary woman who wanted to be with him - who _loved_ him.

They had to break apart for air eventually, and they rested against each other, forehead to forehead, breathing in tandem. He rubbed noses with her. “Well, whaddya say? Shall we bring this bitch down?”

“Let’s,” she breathed.

He let go of her and pulled out his phone. “Okay. So we start - ” He rotated on the spot, squinting around. “That one.”

She stepped away from him, careful not to let her hands start misting until she was several steps away. He watched the white spill down her hair and her eyes glow white. No matter how terrifying she looked, she was Caitlin underneath it.

She pressed her hands to the pillar, and he watched frost spread out from her hands. He pictured the water inside the concrete expanding as it froze, cracking the concrete, weakening it.

By the time she’d frozen four out of the eight load-bearing pillars, he’d had to zip up his jacket against the ambient cold, and after the sixth one, he had to pull on his gloves and activate the little heaters tucked away everywhere in his suit. He didn’t care. That was why they were there.

“Ready for me?” he said when she stepped away from the last pillar.

She nodded. “Do it.”

He walked to a spot in the middle of all the pillars and flexed his fingers. This would have to be fast, because if his calculations were right (of course they were right) the building would start to come down almost immediately.

He breathed in, gathering his powers together into knots in the palm of his hands. He thought of all the things that had been taken from him and her and Central City that night two years ago.

And as he always did, he thought _Why?_

Why had the accelerator exploded? Why Star Labs betrayed them? Why had so many people died, and so many more had their lives and bodies permanently changed?

And as always, there was no answering _Because_.

He braced his feet against backlash, pushed his arms out in front of him, spread his hands wide, and flung the first boom. Then the second. The pillars cracked and pitted, bits of concrete flying off in all directions. Then the rest. _Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom._

He dropped his hands, almost too weary to stand. Caitlin stepped up, sliding her arm around his waist for support. He leaned against her for a moment. “Gotta go,” he said in her ear. “Hear that?”

The building was rumbling, trembling. Little bits of concrete came spattering down from the groaning, moaning ceiling, joining the rubble already on the floor.

She nodded and braced her shoulder under his arm. “Got it in you?”

“Oh yeah.” With a twist of his hand, he ripped a hole in the air. She was already on the move as it opened up, and they jumped through together as the ceiling fell in.

They landed on a hillside overlooking Star Labs. Iris West straightened up from where she leaned against her car.  "God, there you are,“ she said. "What took you so long? I thought something had gone wrong.”

“We were having a moment down there,” Caitlin said. Her hand moved softly against Cisco’s back, stroking him absently. He leaned into it.

“Well, let’s go. Once that building collapses, there are going to be all sorts of people swarming around here.”

“Hey,” he said. “Without even watching it fall in? You gonna deny us that?”

Iris shook her head. “Better look quick.”

They turned to face Star Labs. Although they’d felt it start to go, inside, it was deceptively still from this vantage point. Not for long, though. Even as they watched, one side started to sag, like cardboard in the rain. It led the way and before long, all the outer walls leaned in, precarious - and then with a roar and a cloud of debris, it collapsed into rubble and was gone.

He put his arm around Caitlin’s waist. She leaned her head against his.

Maybe they’d never get an answer to all their _whys_. Maybe it had died with one of those nineteen people, or maybe there wasn’t an answer at all. But they were here, and they were using the dubious gifts that the explosion had given them to help people, and maybe that was the answer.

Caitlin murmured, “So, now that we’ve had our closure - what happens next?”

Iris, already in the driver’s seat, laid on the horn as sirens began to wail.

Cisco grinned and murmured back, “I don’t know. Let’s go find out.”

FINIS


End file.
